Wing gull integration nacelle clearance, compact landing gear stowage, and sonic boom reduction

Abstract

A supersonic cruise configuration aircraft comprises a fuselage extending on a longitudinal axis from a forward nose to an aft tail, and a wing coupled at an inboard section to the fuselage and extending to an outboard tip, and having a leading edge and a trailing edge. The aircraft further comprises a landing gear that is coupled to the wing and capable of stowing into the wing and fuselage on retraction. The landing gear has a landing gear strut. The wing is gulled with a dihedral at an angle that is increased inboard and aligns with the retracted landing gear. The wing has a minimum thickness sufficient to enclose the landing gear.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Supersonic flight over the United States and other countries is a challenging environmental issue for a viable supersonic commercial aircraft. Current FAA regulations prohibit civil flights at Mach numbers greater than one without case-by-case exceptions approved by the Administrator. Many other countries have similar restrictions. [0002] Previous research has shown that the highly impulsive nature of the “N-wave” sonic-boom signatures of all existing supersonic aircraft is the primary cause of negative response and regulatory limitations on supersonic travel. Conclusions of NASA research further indicate the exceptional difficultly of designing an aircraft with an “N-wave” signature of sufficiently low amplitude for general public acceptance. However, the research also found that a “shaped” signature was less objectionable and that a reasonably achievable amplitude wave could meet Committee on Hearing and Bioacoustics of the National Research Coun...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] What is desired is a supersonic aircraft with appropriate tail clearance for takeoff and landing and a landing gear configuration that facilitates the appropriate tail clearance while stowing in a compact arrangement.

[0011] According to other embodiments, an aircraft comprises a fuselage extending on a longitudinal axis from a forward nose to an aft tail, a wing coupled at an inboard section to the fuselage and extending to an outboard tip, and having a leading edge and a trailing edge, a leading edge flap coupled to the leading edge of the wing, and a landing gear. The landing gear is coupled to the wing and capable of stowing into the wing and fuselage on retraction. The landing gear stows within the wing at a selected chordwise location between the wing leading and trailing edges. The wing has an inboard dihedral that is straight near the leading edge and angled at the chordwise location of the landing gear to facilitate leading edge flap deployment and sealing.

Problems solved by technology

Supersonic flight over the United States and other countries is a challenging environmental issue for a viable supersonic commercial aircraft.

Previous research has shown that the highly impulsive nature of the “N-wave” sonic-boom signatures of all existing supersonic aircraft is the primary cause of negative response and regulatory limitations on supersonic travel.

Conclusions of NASA research further indicate the exceptional difficultly of designing an aircraft with an “N-wave” signature of sufficiently low amplitude for general public acceptance.

However, for a plane flying at supersonic speeds, the air cannot easily flow around the plane and is instead compressed, generating a pressure pulse through the atmosphere.

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